There may be confusion amongst some about what language is actually spoken in Taiwan. The logical answer would be Taiwanese, which is different from Mandarin. This may lead some to wonder “Do Taiwanese speak Mandarin?”

The answer is yes. Mandarin (literally Guóyǔ (國語) or “country language”) is the main language spoken in Taiwan and one of the three national languages (along with Taiwanese and Hakka).

Having said that, you may see references to Taiwanese Mandarin, as opposed to the Taiwanese language. This refers to the type of Mandarin spoken in Taiwan and how it differs with what you might hear in China, Singapore or elsewhere. Here are some key differences:

1. The use of traditional characters in Taiwan vs simplified characters in China
2. The use of bopomofo (zhuyin) to teach it
3. Differences in accents (Taiwanese Mandarin sounds similar to the type of Mandarin you might hear in Shanghai or other southern parts of China)
4. Differences in vocabulary and grammar. Some words share the same characters, but are pronounced differently in Taiwan vs China. There are also grammar patterns used in Taiwan that you wouldn’t normally hear in China. Many of these differences come from in the influence of the Taiwanese language with Mandarin in Taiwan.

 

Here are some examples:

Differences in vocabulary

English	Taiwan (traditional)	China (simplified)
Taxi	jìchéngchē (計程車)	chūzūchē (出租车)
Bicycle	jiǎotàchē (腳踏車)	zìxíngchē (自行车)
Software	ruǎntǐ (軟體)	ruǎnjiàn (软件)
Air conditioner	lěngqì (冷氣)	kōngtiáo (空调)
Internet	wǎnglù (網路)	wǎngluò (网络)
Cheese	qǐsī (起司)	nǎilào (奶酪)
Garbage	lèsè (垃圾)	lājī (垃圾)
And	hàn (和)	hé (和)

Notice how the last two examples above use the same characters but are pronounced completely differently in Taiwan vs China.

In other cases, the characters are pronounced the same way but use different tones in Taiwan compared to China.

English	Taiwan (traditional)	China (simplified)
Week	xīngqí (星期)	xīngqī (星期)
Dangerous	wéixiǎn (危險)	wēixiǎn (危险)
Microwave oven	wéibōlú (微波爐)	wēibōlú (微波炉)
Grades	chéngjī (成績)	chéngjì (成绩)
Hairstyle	fǎxíng (髮型)	fàxíng (发型)

There are also some words that can have different meanings in China vs Taiwan, so be careful with these:

Chinese	Taiwan meaning	China meaning
àirén (愛人 / 爱人)	mistress	lover / spouse
xiǎojie (小姐)	young lady	prostitute (in some areas)

Differences in grammar patterns, again due to influence from Taiwanese

English	Taiwan (traditional)	China (simplified)
Are you cold?	nǐ huì lěng ma? (你會冷嗎?)	nǐ lěng bù lěng? (你冷不冷?)
Have you eaten?	nǐ yǒu chīfàn ma? (你有吃飯嗎?)	nǐ chīfàn le ma? (你吃饭了吗?)

In the above grammar case, there is recognition that while this is colloquially common, it is not standard Mandarin, so you are unlikely to see this type of grammar in books and articles.

When I first came to Taiwan and began learning Chinese, I wondered why I could understand when locals spoke Chinese to me, but I couldn’t understand a word of what they were saying to each other when I tried to listen in.

I soon came to realize that there was more than one form of Chinese spoken in Taiwan. This led me to wonder which form I should be learning.

Taiwanese vs Mandarin

Many people know that Mandarin Chinese is an official language in Taiwan. Some may assume that Taiwanese refers to Mandarin, but it’s actually a separate subset of the language.  In fact there are three distinct versions of Chinese spoken in Taiwan, all of which are official languages and listed here in order of usage.

1. Mandarin (國語) – is the main language taught in schools and spoken across Taiwan. It would be rare to find anyone in Taiwan who doesn’t speak any Mandarin at all, so this is definitely what you want to be learning. It is also useful outside of Taiwan, being a national language of China and Singapore. Indeed it is the most spoken language in the world with over 800 million native speakers.
2. Hokkien, also known as Minnan (閩南話) or Taiwanese (台語), and spoken in the Fujian province of China, is spoken by about 70% of the Taiwanese population. It is more prevalent as you go south in Taiwan. 
3. Hakka (客家語)- also spoken in parts of southern China, is a native language for around 15% of local Taiwanese.

Most expats in Taiwan learn some level of Mandarin Chinese to get by in day to day living. Learning a few key phrases of Taiwanese though would help you stand out among locals.

Here are a few key phrases and expressions in Mandarin and Taiwanese to help you recognize the difference.

English	Mandarin (Characters)	Mandarin Pinyin	Taiwanese
Hello	你好	nǐ hǎo	lí hó
How are you?	你好嗎?	nǐ hǎo ma?	lí hó bô?
Have you eaten?	吃飯了嗎?	chīfàn le ma?	chia̍h pá bô?
Sorry / excuse me	對不起	duìbuqǐ	pháinn-sè
Thank you	謝謝	xièxie	to-siā
Don’t understand	聽不懂	tīngbudǒng	thiaⁿ-bô
Goodbye	再見	zàijiàn	chài-kiàn

Things to notice above:

1. Not all characters in Mandarin map one to one with Taiwanese equivalents. There are alternate expressions used in Taiwanese that wouldn’t be used in Mandarin and vice versa.
2. The phonetic text used to show the Taiwanese is different from pinyin and follows different pronunciation rules
3. There are up to 8 tones used in Taiwanese vs 4 in Mandarin

Here is a page listing more Taiwanese expressions if you’re interested.

 

If you’re not familiar, zhuyin ( 注音), known informally as bopomofo is a method of transcribing Chinese characters that local Taiwanese kids use in school. It is essentially the alphabet to Chinese learners in Taiwan. It is made up of 37 characters and 4 tone marks. The first four characters are pronounced as “bopomofo” which is what gives zhuyin its unofficial name (in the same way the English alphabet is sometimes known as the ABCs).

Each zhuyin character represents a distinct sound, that can be combined with other characters to form variations. Together, these 37 characters can be used to transcribe all possible sounds in Chinese.

Most expats learning Chinese use pinyin, which allows you to transcribe Chinese characters using the English alphabet that we’re already familiar with. Learning zhuyin bopomofo would first require you to learn 37 new characters and the sounds that each represents. Here’s what these characters look like:

ㄅㄆㄇㄈㄉㄊㄋㄌㄍㄎㄏㄐㄑㄒㄓㄔㄕㄖㄗㄘㄙ

ㄧㄨㄩㄚㄛㄜㄝㄞㄟㄠㄡㄢㄣㄤㄥㄦ

The first row above are actually consonants, while the bottom row are vowels. So you’ll usually see a combination of the first and second row to come up with sounds representing actual characters in Chinese.

So why learn zhuyin bopomofo if you already know (or are learning) pinyin? Here are three reasons.

1. Zhuyin pronunciation is more accurate.

   As pinyin is based around the English alphabet, it is common for learners to use English pronunciation rules for some sounds in Chinese. The problem though is that some of the sounds in Chinese don’t exist in English, so if you try using English pronunciation rules when reading pinyin, you will end up with the wrong sound. 

   When learning zhuyin though, as it is a new character set, you are less likely to confuse it with English rules and are more likely to end up with more accurate Chinese pronunciation.

   2. Lot of reading material available with zhuyin transcriptions.

If you want to learn to read in Chinese, there are a ton of resources made for kids in Taiwan that insert zhuyin alongside the Chinese characters. The zhuyin tends to be in a tinier font, so readers can focus on the Chinese characters first, and only use the zhuyin when required.

You are unlikely to find many equivalent materials with pinyin transcriptions.

3. You are less likely to cheat.

As an English speaker, if you did find materials with pinyin written next to it, you are more likely to focus on the pinyin, since it’s easier for your brain to comprehend the English alphabet than the foreign Chinese characters. This wouldn’t be an effective way of learning Chinese characters as ideally you would want to focus on those first.

As zhuyin is also a foreign character set, it is easier to focus on the Chinese character set first and use the zhuyin marks next to it to identify its pronunciation when required. This makes it easier to recognize and learn Chinese characters.

4. Learning zhuyin bopomofo opens the door to other resources

If you have looked at a local computer keyboard, you’re likely to notice the zhuyin marks inserted among the standard QWERTY layout. By typing in the relevant zhuyin characters, these are then converted to the equivalent Chinese characters.

When adding a Chinese keyboard option to your smartphone there are usually options for pinyin or zhuyin versions, so you can take your pick.

It is also the method used for looking up characters in local dictionaries, if you get to that level.

5. It offers another method to communicate with locals

Have you ever been in a situation where you know what to say in Chinese and say it, but are still not understood? Perhaps your pronunciation or tones are off. In such a situation, you could write out what you wanted to say in zhuyin bopomofo and probably be understood.

Or there may be a situation where the local is giving you information that you’re not clear about and they write it out to you in Chinese characters that you don’t recognize. Here is another situation where they could write it out in zhuyin bopomofo to make it easier for you to understand.

In either situation, pinyin is unlikely to work, even with locals who speak English, as they are unlikely to have learned pinyin and so would be unclear what the pinyin is saying.

Fun Facts about Zhuyin Bopomofo

1. This system is only used in Taiwan and not in China. They use pinyin in China.
2. Zhuyin is actually older than pinyin. It was first introduced in 1910. Pinyin was formed in 1950.
3. Zhuyin can also be used to learn Taiwanese and other languages in Taiwan that have their own unique pronunciation systems.

 

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If you’re in Taiwan learning Chinese, you may be aware that the Chinese characters used in Taiwan (traditional) differ from those used in China (simplified). So which should you learn – simplified Chinese or traditional? Here are 6 reasons to choose traditional Chinese characters vs simplified. 

1. You don’t have a choice

If you’re living in Taiwan, then you don’t really have a choice between learning traditional Chinese characters vs simplified. Traditional Chinese characters are what is used in Taiwan. There is no reason to learn simplified unless you plan to:

• Communicate with people from China
• Consume resources created in China or for Chinese users

If you don’t plan to do either of the above, then stick to traditional and move on to the next article.

2. Traditional Chinese characters are more meaningful

Many Chinese characters are pictorial representations of the meaning. For example the character 門 means “gate” or “door.”  You can imagine the old saloon style swinging doors that kind of look like 門. The simplified version is reduced to 门 which while it can still visually be thought of as a door, has less meaning than the original. 

Some characters are created as combinations of other characters. For example if you combine 木 (wood) with 日 (sun), you get the character 東 (East). You can think of viewing the sun rising through the woods to come up with the character for East. However the simplified character for East is 东 which loses the individual breakdown we see in the traditional version.

There are lots of other examples where the simplified version of a character removes elements that would help you understand the original meaning of the character. The character 愛 (love) includes the element 心 (heart) but is simplified to 爱 without the heart.

Learning traditional characters preserves the history and meaning of characters, much of which has been removed in their simplified versions. 

3. Traditional characters are easier to learn

The irony of course is that traditional characters were simplified to make them easier to learn. The idea was that by reducing the number of strokes required, it would make the characters easier to learn. The side effect of this simplification process though is that the process of removing strokes removed many of the meaningful elements from characters.

Take the character 關 for example. It means “to close”. If you remember that 門 above means door, it’s not much of a stretch to view 關 as a locked (closed) version of 門. 

Now compare this to the simplified versions of 门 (door) and 关 (close) which have no relation to each other and are just arbitrary replacements chosen for 門 and 關 respectively.

4. People rarely write anymore

The case for simplifying traditional characters made sense during the age when much information and correspondence was physically written down. A few seconds shaved here and there from not having to write as many strokes could add up to significant time saved over an extended period of time.

In the digital age we live in these days though, it’s rare for most of us to do much handwriting in any language. You may have to fill out a form once in a while, which involves writing your name and perhaps your street address at most. The time saved from writing fewer strokes is pretty insignificant.

5. A natural simplification process already exists

If you’ve watched locals writing in Chinese, you’ll notice a lot of written characters look very different from their original forms. In the same way most people writing in English use a cursive format to combine strokes and improve their writing speed, the same thing happens in written Chinese.

So while it may take you several seconds to write out complicated traditional characters in their original form, native writers will be able to write them out much faster by combining strokes.

 

 

6. Traditional characters are just as fast to type out

As was touched upon above, most of our communication today tends to be digital. You are much more likely to use Chinese in an email or in a text message than having to write it out by hand. When it comes to typing, all the benefits to simplification disappear. You can type just as fast in traditional as you would in simplified. And in the odd case that you need to type in simplified, it’s as simple as changing the language character set on your keyboard and continuing on.

Have you started learning characters? What are your thoughts on learning traditional Chinese characters vs simplified? Let us know in the comments below.

 

Despite living here for many years, many expats choose to not learn Chinese in Taiwan. While many people around the world would love to learn Chinese, they aren’t able to do so effectively because they lack a Mandarin speaking environment. Here in Taiwan we have that, yet why do so many expats still not learn Chinese?

Reason 1: It’s hard

One of my main reasons for coming here back in the day was to learn Chinese in Taiwan. I figured that by living in a Chinese speaking environment, I would automatically pick up the language by osmosis. How hard could it be?

As you can probably guess, after a year or two living here with this (lack of) approach, it didn’t work. I only knew a few key phrases. What was wrong with me, I wondered. Why wasn’t I grasping this language?

A little research into it made me realize the issue. Most learning of new languages tends to come from reading. This is why most learners of English learn the alphabet very early on. Once they understand the 26 letters and how words are formed a LOT of their learning comes not just from books but from the environment. You look around and see a bakery. You know what that is and see the word “bakery” listed outside – boom! You just learned a new word!

Living in Taiwan though, we are surrounded by thousands of characters that our brain just ignores. As a result, a big part of our learning doesn’t exist to begin with.

Imagine trying to learn English without being able to use the English alphabet. See the problem there?

Reason 2: It takes work

Now yes, you could enroll in a local language center and start learning characters. That takes a lot of work though, especially since most language centers require you to learn how to write them as well. That requires you to develop hours of hours of muscle memory (if you’ve seen what local elementary students have to do for homework, you’ll understand the process).

The good news is that it is possible to learn Chinese without learning characters. At least for the basics. If you want to become fluent, then learning characters is a must. But if you want to get your feet wet, then start off by learning pinyin. This does require some effort, as not all sounds are what you’d expect in English, plus there’s the whole tone aspect. However it’s WAY simpler than learning characters.

Most Chinese textbooks and online resources use pinyin, so start with that. It will allow you to visualize what the sounds of Chinese are supposed to sound like (especially important for those of us who are visual learners).

If you want to get fancy, you can also try your hand at learning zhuyin bopomofo and using the many resources that kids growing up here use to learn Chinese.

Reason 3: It takes practice

Ok, so you have taken the time to learn pinyin. Now what? 

Pick your favorite resource. Start learning the basics. You could get good at these, but it will all go to waste if you don’t put what you learn to use. This means greeting people in Chinese (even when you could do so in English). This means ordering your food in Chinese (even when you can just point at a picture). 

If you want to take it to the next level, start learning how to do the things in Chinese that you currently do in English. It may seem awkward at first, but if it’s something you do regularly, you’ll find yourself getting the hang of it sooner, rather than later.

Reason 4: It’s frustrating

If you follow the above steps, you’ll make remarkable progress. But you’ll also encounter massive frustration. There will be times you say things that sound correct to you, that nobody will understand. There will be times you say things in proper Chinese, only to have your partner reply to you in English. And there will be times you’ll put find yourself in the deep end of the pool. You have to communicate in Chinese, yet don’t have the vocabulary to do so and can’t find yourself understood no matter what you try. 

These are all parts of the learning process. This is where most expats give up and stick to their comfort zones of English. They can always find a local partner to handle the Chinese.

Yet there are a few among us who strive to make it to the top. They are the ones who understand the next rule.

Reason 5: It requires persistence

The ones who actually make it to fluency (the Gods among us, so to speak) understand that it’s a hard language to work, that it takes effort and practice and that they will encounter loads of frustration in the process. They are the ones who get back on the horse and keep at it and keep at it until they get it right. They see the light at the end of the tunnel when they are finally understood. They are shocked when they are able to instantly reply to queries with no preparation, even wondering where they learned that answer. They are the ones who aren’t satisfied with just being understood but want to take it to the next level – how would a native Chinese speaker have said that?

So how about you? Are you satisfied at where your Chinese is? Join CLO to take it to the next level.